Julia Catherine Donaldson (; born 16 September 1948) is an English writer and playwright, and the 2011–2013 Children's Laureate. She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, which include The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom and Stick Man. She originally wrote songs for children's television but has concentrated on writing books since the words of one of her songs, "A Squash and a Squeeze", were made into a children's book in 1993. Of her 184 published works, 64 are widely available in bookshops. The remaining 120 are intended for school use and include her Songbirds phonic reading scheme, which is part of the Oxford University Press's Oxford Reading Tree.
In January 2025, Donaldson became Britain's best-selling author, surpassing J.K. Rowling by some 600,000 sales.
Life and career
Childhood
Donaldson was born on 16 September 1948, and was brought up in Hampstead, London, with her younger sister. The family occupied a Victorian three-storey house near Hampstead Heath.
Both parents were musical. Poetry also featured strongly in Donaldson's early life; she was given The Book of a Thousand Poems by her father when she was five years old, and her grandmother introduced her to Edward Lear’s nonsense rhymes. Donaldson attended New End Primary School and then Camden School for Girls. During her childhood and adolescence, she acted (understudying the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Old Vic where she made the acquaintance of a young Judi Dench and Tom Courtenay), sang with the Children's Opera Group, and learned the piano.
A skilled linguist, she studied French and German at school and later acquired Italian through a summer tutoring job with a family in Naples, so that by the age of 19, she had a proficient grasp of all three languages.
University life
Donaldson studied Drama and French at Bristol University (1967–1970), graduating with a 2:1 honours degree. During her time there she acted in departmental productions and learned the guitar. In 1968, she and her friend Maureen Purkis took part in the play I am not the Eiffel Tower with music composed by Colin Sell, a young pianist who was studying Spanish and Portuguese at Bristol and who later appeared in BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
Sell's roommate Malcolm Donaldson, a medical student, came to see the show and subsequently teamed up with Sell, Donaldson and Purkis to sing in the pubs during Bristol University Rag Week in early 1969. Almost immediately after this Donaldson and Purkis were seconded to live in Paris for six months as part of their degree course where they sang and played their guitars to café audiences for money. Malcolm joined them in the summer and the trio performed various songs by the Beatles and from musicals including Hair.
1970s
The couple continued to busk in Europe during holidays, including in France and Italy, with Julia Donaldson writing "The French Busking Song" in French, and "The Spaghetti Song" in Italian. By 1971, Donaldson was working in London at Michael Joseph publishers as a secretary to Anthea Joseph but was also given considerable leeway as a junior editor. At weekends she and Malcolm took part in the Bristol Street Theatre, a group of mainly postgraduate students inspired by the late playwright David Illingworth. The group devised simple, unscripted plays which could be performed in the playgrounds of poor council estates and which recruited children from the audience to take over some of the roles. This was to have a lasting effect on Donaldson's interaction with children in her own shows as an established children's writer.
The couple were married on 30 September 1972 at St John-at-Hampstead Church, Donaldson composing an operetta which she and Malcolm, their best man Colin Sell, the bridesmaids and ushers performed at the reception in Burgh House, Hampstead. A picture of the wedding is on display in the house today. Donaldson then worked as a secretary in Radio Bristol where she also had a weekly slot as short story producer/editor. In August 1974 the couple moved to Brighton where Donaldson had been appointed as editor at Robert Tyndall, a small book publishers. Shortly before this she had sent a tape of songs to BBC Children's Television, and between 1974 and 1978 she wrote regularly for the programme Play Away, her songs being performed by actors and musicians including Toni Arthur, Floella Benjamin, Johnny Ball, Brian Cant, Derek Griffiths and musical director Jonathan Cohen. She also wrote occasional songs for Play School and for the Watch with Mother programme Play Board. Some of Donaldson's songs – "The Luck of the Game", "Funny Face" and "A Squash and a Squeeze" – were recorded at this time for BBC albums.
Julia and Malcolm were involved in the Brighton folk club scene, performing floor spots of comedy songs written by Donaldson, often within days of being composed. The songs were variously influenced by Flanders and Swann, topical affairs and traditional folk tales (the latter inspiring spoofs such as "The Ballad of Jack Nancy and Fred", and "Folk Alphabet"). Their vinyl album First Fourteen(1977) featured many of these songs, while others were included much later on the CD Second Fourteen (2006, when First Fourteen was also re-mastered as a CD).
Donaldson composed two musicals for children: King Grunt's Cake (1976) and Pirate on the Pier (1980) which she and a small cast performed both in London and Brighton. Influenced by their Bristol Street Theatre experience, Donaldson ran a Saturday-morning workshop for children in Portslade from 1974 to 1976. During these sessions a simple play would be devised, followed by making of props and costumes, rehearsal and then a performance.
In 1977/6 Donaldson studied at Brighton College of Education for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education and worked for two years as an English teacher at St Mary's Hall in Brighton until the arrival of their first child Hamish in 1978, after which she never returned to full-time employment. The couple moved to Lyon in France for a year (1979–80) with Hamish, returning to Brighton where their second son Alastair was born in 1981. and Magic Light Pictures. The Gruffalo was followed by more Donaldson/Scheffler publications by Macmillan: Monkey Puzzle (2000), Room on the Broom (2001), The Smartest Giant in Town (2002), The Snail and the Whale (2003), The Gruffalo's Child, featuring an only child Gruffalo with a wooden stick doll plus the original cast of Gruffalo, Mouse, Fox, Snake and Owl (2004), and Charlie Cook's Favourite Book (2005). In 2006 Scheffler moved to Alison Green Books who published the duo's Tiddler (2007), Stick Man (2008), Tabby McTat (2009), Zog (2010), The Highway Rat (2011), Superworm (2012), The Scarecrows' Wedding (2014), Zog and the Flying Doctors (2017) and The Smeds and the Smoos (2019). In February 2026, Donaldson announced a third Gruffalo book titled Gruffalo Granny, set for a September 2026 release.
Since publication of The Gruffalo, Donaldson has worked with other illustrators including Lydia Monks, David Roberts and Nick Sharratt, who has also illustrated two books of poems by Donaldson, Crazy Mayonnaisy Mum and Wriggle and Roar. Lydia Monks has illustrated the Princess Mirror-Belle trilogy, a series of books for 7- to 10-year-olds about a boastful girl who is the mirror reflection of an ordinary girl called Ellen. The inspiration for Mirror-Belle was Hamish's imaginary childhood friend Sammy, who lived behind a wardrobe mirror.
Donaldson is also the author of The Giants and the Joneses for children aged 8–12 years. Her teenage novel Running on the Cracks is set in Glasgow and traces the adventures of orphaned half-Chinese Leo (aged 15) who is fleeing from her dodgy uncle in England and trying to find her father's estranged family. She befriends a schoolboy called Finlay, who is loosely based on Donaldson's youngest son Jerry during his days as a paper boy. Running on the Cracks, whose element of mental illness is drawn from Hamish's hospital experiences won the Nasen award in 2011 for its sympathetic and inclusive portrait of Mary, who befriends Leo but then descends into a severe relapse of her bi-polar condition.
Donaldson has also written a phonic reading scheme of short stories comprising 60 books of Songbird Phonics, published by Oxford University Press.
A typical public event consists of acting out (more or less word-for-word) four stories, and singing three or four songs (mostly from Donaldson's three albums of songs – The Gruffalo Song and Other Songs, Room on the Broom and Other Songs and The Gruffalo's Child and Other Songs). There is always a strong element of audience participation, with children (and sometimes their parents) invited on stage to act parts in the stories. Malcolm Donaldson almost always takes part in the events, and they are also often joined by other performers including family members.
Donaldson has also performed jointly with her illustrators, particularly Axel Scheffler and Lydia Monks. She has performed the Donaldson/Scheffler books not only in English but also in German on several tours and at the Berlin Festival. In 2007, when Malcolm took a sabbatical from his job, he joined Julia on a World Tour, acting and singing in Bermuda, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and America.
Laureateship
In 2011, Donaldson was appointed Children's Laureate succeeding the illustrator Anthony Browne. In keeping with her interest in acting and singing Donaldson has set out to encourage children to perform poetry, plays and dramatised readings to generate a love of books and of reading. Accordingly, she has created a series of Plays to Read for six characters to be performed in the classroom, written by herself and by other writers such as Geraldine McCaughrean, Jeanne Willis and Vivian French. The first 36 of these plays, for early readers, were published by Pearson (2013) with a further 24 plays for older primary-school children following later in the year. She also compiled an anthology of Poems to Perform by groups of children.
In her laureate role Donaldson has campaigned against library cuts and closures, writing articles, meeting ministers and – with Malcolm Donaldson – embarking on a six-week tour of UK libraries in autumn 2012. In all of the 38 libraries the visiting children were requested to perform a short play or song based on a picture book, as well as joining in Donaldson's own stories and songs. The tour was designed to celebrate libraries as a precious resource at a time many were threatened with closure.
Personal life
In her 30s, Donaldson was diagnosed with "cookie-bite" hearing loss, which leaves a bite-shaped hole in the mid-range of the audible spectrum, making it difficult for her to hear some speech and music, and she is helped by lip reading.
Malcolm Donaldson, Julia's husband, was a consultant paediatrician. The couple previously resided in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire and, in 2014, moved to Steyning, West Sussex. They have three sons, the eldest of whom, Hamish, had Schizoaffective disorder and died by suicide in 2003 at the age of 25. His death followed that of his cousin Gaius (the son of Julia's sister, Mary Moore), who also suffered from mental health issues and died by suicide 29 days earlier, on 1 November 2003. Donaldson credited Hamish with inspiring some of her imaginative writings.
Charity work
Donaldson is a patron of ArtLink Central, a charity which places artists in disadvantaged communities, and of Bookbug, a programme run by the Scottish Book Trust and funded by the Scottish Government, which gifts over 500,000 books to children aged 0–5 in Scotland every year, encouraging parents to share books with their children from birth. In addition she is a patron of Storybook Dads, a UK charity which helps serving prisoners to send recordings of themselves reading bedtime stories to their children in order to maintain connections with some of the 200,000 children affected by parental imprisonment. She is also patron of Monmouth's Savoy Cinema.
Awards, honours and prize
She was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to literature. She was promoted to Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.
She was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Bristol in 2011 and the University of Glasgow in 2012.
- 1999 Nestle Smarties Book Prize (Gold Award): The Gruffalo
- 2000 Blue Peter Best Book to Read Aloud: The Gruffalo
- 2001 Experian Big Three Award: The Gruffalo
- 2002 Spoken Book Awards, Children's Audio of the Year: The Gruffalo
- 2002 Sheffield Book Award: Room on the Broom
- 2002 Scottish Children's Book Award: Room on the Broom
- 2002 Stockport Book Award: Room on the Broom
- 2003 Norfolk Libraries Book Award: Room on the Broom
- 2003 Blue Peter Best Book to Read Aloud: Room on the Broom
- 2003 Spoken Book Awards Gold Prize for 6 and under: Room on the Broom
- 2003 Spoken Book Awards Silver Prize for 6 and under: Monkey Puzzle
- 2003 Red House Children's Book Award: The Smartest Giant in Town
- 2003 Sheffield Children's Book Award: The Smartest Giant in Town
- 2004 Portsmouth Book Awards: The Smartest Giant in Town
- 2004 Blue Peter Best Book to Read Aloud: The Smartest Giant in Town
- 2004 Spoken Book Awards Gold Prize for 6 and Under: The Smartest Giant in Town
- 2004 Book Trust Early Years Award: The Snail and the Whale
- 2005 Nottingham Book Award: The Smartest Giant in Town
- 2005 Blue Peter Best Book to Read Aloud: The Snail and the Whale
- 2005 Spoken Book Awards Gold Prize for 6 and Under Audio: The Snail and the Whale
- 2005 British Book Awards: The Gruffalo's Child
- 2007 Giverny Award: The Snail and the Whale
- 2009 NASEN Book Awards: Running on the Cracks
- 2010 Galaxy Book Award: Zog
- 2011 Stockport Book Award: What the Ladybird Heard
- 2011 Scottish Children's Book Awards: What the Ladybird Heard
- 2011 Stockport Book Awards: The Troll
- 2011 Oxfordshire Book Awards: Zog
- 2012 Stockport Book Awards: Jack and the Flumflum Tree
- 2012 Oldham Book Awards: Jack and the Flumflum Tree
Works
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year !! Title !! ISBN !! Illustrator !! Notes
|-
! 1993
| A Squash and a Squeeze || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
! 1998
| Books and Crooks (Play) || || ||
|-
! 1999
| The Gruffalo || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
! rowspan="5" | 2000
| Monkey Puzzle || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Hide-and-Seek Pig (Tales from Acorn Wood) || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Postman Bear (Tales from Acorn Wood) || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Fox's Socks (Tales from Acorn Wood) || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Rabbit's Nap (Tales from Acorn Wood) || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
! rowspan="3" | 2002
| Room on the Broom || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Smartest Giant in Town || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Night Monkey, Day Monkey || || Lucy Richards ||
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2003
| The Snail and the Whale || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Dinosaur's Diary || || ||
|-
! rowspan="8" | 2004
| One Ted Falls Out of Bed || || Anna Currey ||
|-
| The Gruffalo's Child || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Giants and the Joneses || || Greg Swearingen ||
|-
| The Magic Paintbrush || || Joel Stewart ||
|-
| The Wrong Kind of Bark || || Garry Parsons ||
|-
| Brick-a-Breck || || Philippe Dupasquier ||
|-
| Bombs and Blackberries || || Thomas Docherty ||
|-
| The Head in the Sand: A Roman Play || || Ross Collins ||
|-
! rowspan="11" | 2005
| Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose || || Nick Sharratt ||
|-
| Charlie Cook's Favourite Book || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Gruffalo Song and Other Songs || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Quick Brown Fox Club || || Lucy Richards ||
|-
| Sharing a Shell || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| Spinderella || || Sebastien Braun ||
|-
| Wriggle and Roar || || Nick Sharratt ||
|-
| Crazy Mayonnaisy Mum || || Nick Sharratt ||
|-
| Princess Mirror-Belle || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| Princess Mirror-Belle and the Magic Shoes || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| Princess Mirror-Belle and the Flying Horse || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
! rowspan="5" | 2006
| The Princess and the Wizard || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| Room on the Broom and Other Songs || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Rosie's Hat || || Anna Currey ||
|-
| Hippo Has a Hat || || Nick Sharratt ||
|-
| Play Time! A Selection of Plays || || ||
|-
! rowspan="3" | 2007
| Follow the Swallow || || Martin Ursell ||
|-
| Tiddler || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Tyrannosaurus Drip || || David Roberts ||
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2008
| One Mole Digging a Hole || || Nick Sharratt ||
|-
| Stick Man || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
! rowspan="5" | 2009
| Toddle Waddle || || Nick Sharratt ||
|-
| What the Ladybird Heard || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| Tabby McTat || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Troll || || David Roberts ||
|-
| Running on the Cracks || || || Donaldson's first novel for teenagers
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2010
| Cave Baby || || Emily Gravett ||
|-
| Zog || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
! rowspan="5" | 2011
| Freddie and the Fairy || || Karen George ||
|-
| The Rhyming Rabbit || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| The Highway Rat || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Gruffalo's Child and Other Songs || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| Jack and the Flumflum Tree || || David Roberts ||
|-
! rowspan="6" | 2012
| Goat Goes to Playgroup || || Nick Sharratt ||
|-
| The Singing Mermaid || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| Superworm || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Paper Dolls || || Rebecca Cobb ||
|-
| The Snake Who Came to Stay || || Hannah Shaw ||
|-
| Mr Birdsnest and the House Next Door || || Hannah Shaw ||
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2013
| Sugarlump and the Unicorn || || Lydia Monks ||
|-
| The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussy-cat || || Charlotte Voake ||
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2014
| The Flying Bath || || David Roberts ||
|-
| The Scarecrows' Wedding || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
!2015
|What the Ladybird Heard Next
|
|Lydia Monks
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2016
|The Detective Dog|||| Sara Ogilvie ||
|-
|Princess Mirror-Belle and Prince Precious Paws
|
|Lydia Monks
|
|-
! rowspan="3" | 2017
| Zog and the Flying Doctors || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
| The Everywhere Bear || || Rebecca Cobb ||
|-
| The Ugly Five || || Axel Scheffler ||
|-
! rowspan="3" |2018
|Animalphabet
|
|Sharon King-Chai
|
|-
|What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday
|
|Lydia Monks
|
|-
|The Cook and the King|||| David Roberts ||
|-
!2019
|The Smeds and the Smoos||||Axel Scheffler||
|-
!2020
|The Hospital Dog|| ||Sara Ogilvie||
|-
! rowspan="2" |2021
|Cat's Cookbook (Tales from Acorn Wood)||||Axel Scheffler||
|-
|Squirrel's Snowman (Tales from Acorn Wood)||||Axel Scheffler||
|-
! rowspan="3" |2022
|The Baddies||||Axel Scheffler||
|-
|Badger's Band (Tales from Acorn Wood)||||Axel Scheffler||
|-
|Mole's Spectacles (Tales from Acorn Wood)||||Axel Scheffler||
|-
! rowspan="3" |2023
|The Oak Tree||||Victoria Sandøy||
|-
|Dormouse Has a Cold (Tales from Acorn Wood)||||Axel Scheffler||
|-
|Julia Donaldson's Book of Names||||Nila Aye||
|-
! rowspan="2" |2024
|Frog's Day Out (Tales from Acorn Wood)
|
|Axel Scheffler
|
|-
|Jonty Gentoo - The Adventures of a Penguin
|
|Axel Scheffler
|
|-
! 2026
|Gruffalo Granny
|
|Axel Scheffler
|}
References
External links
- Official website of The Gruffalo at Macmillan Children's Books